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eandslee

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A very interesting article written based on an interview with @flack4ric Feb/Mar timeframe on RIC.  There are a few interesting tidbits of information contained within.  A quick, but good read:

https://www.internationalairportreview.com/article/184716/talking-richmond-international-airports-post-covid-recovery/

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19 minutes ago, eandslee said:

A very interesting article written based on an interview with @flack4ric Feb/Mar timeframe on RIC.  There are a few interesting tidbits of information contained within.  A quick, but good read:

https://www.internationalairportreview.com/article/184716/talking-richmond-international-airports-post-covid-recovery/

Great article. And @flack4ric, awesome information! Thanks so much for sitting down with the publication for an interview! 👍

One of the biggest takeaways is the benefit of attending the conference - lots of nuggets of info in this quote:

"Our goal in attending the Routes America conference is multi-faceted. One is, retaining our existing air service markets, increasing frequencies to our existing destinations, and then highlighting new potential destinations that we know will be successful when explored and added. An example of a new potential destination that we’re talking about in this conference is a Caribbean destination. The meetings at these conferences help airlines understand the true potential of air-service growth at our airport. For instance, we believe meetings at past conferences helped bring in service from Breeze Airways as well as Sun Country to Richmond International Airport."

To me, those four points alone are HUGE. 

Very encouraging to see this! 

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15 hours ago, eandslee said:

A very interesting article written based on an interview with @flack4ric Feb/Mar timeframe on RIC.  There are a few interesting tidbits of information contained within.  A quick, but good read:

https://www.internationalairportreview.com/article/184716/talking-richmond-international-airports-post-covid-recovery/

"We are looking to consolidate our checkpoints." Is this referring to A & B TSA being combined?

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17 minutes ago, Niccckk said:

"We are looking to consolidate our checkpoints." Is this referring to A & B TSA being combined?

Best guess is yes. Not that RIC is at the level yet where someone "changing planes" would happen - but if I'm understanding it correctly, you can't go from one concourse to the other because of each having its own TSA checkpoint. Maybe once they're consolidated - someone theoretically could more easily "change planes" -- getting off a flight arriving at Concourse A - and boarding a flight departing from Concourse B.

Man - if only RIC were big enough (not just physical size but in terms of air service) for this to be a common occurrence. 

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25 minutes ago, Niccckk said:

"We are looking to consolidate our checkpoints." Is this referring to A & B TSA being combined?

That’s exactly what it’s saying. I’m hoping this project gets started very soon. Even if RIC is not a plane-changing hub, it gives travelers more shopping and food options from both terminals, not just the one their flight is assigned to. This should have been done many years ago!

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17 minutes ago, Niccckk said:

"We are looking to consolidate our checkpoints." Is this referring to A & B TSA being combined?

It is referring to that.

 

15 hours ago, I miss RVA said:

"Our goal in attending the Routes America conference is multi-faceted. One is, retaining our existing air service markets, increasing frequencies to our existing destinations, and then highlighting new potential destinations that we know will be successful when explored and added. An example of a new potential destination that we’re talking about in this conference is a Caribbean destination. The meetings at these conferences help airlines understand the true potential of air-service growth at our airport. For instance, we believe meetings at past conferences helped bring in service from Breeze Airways as well as Sun Country to Richmond International Airport."

 

Glad to see the goal is to not just get new routes but to make sure preserve existing routes and increase frequencies. My guess for the potential Caribbean destination would be Cancun, Montego Bay or Punta Cana if I had to guess as they had the highest passenger numbers in 2019. Who knows what airline they’ve been talking to regarding the route though. Hopefully we hear an announcement soon though.🤞

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1 hour ago, RiverYuppy said:

I'm going to be flying RIC this week. Any suggestions on what to look at? I'm hoping that Ironclad already has their coffee set up.

If you’re going to be in Concourse B, see if you can catch a glimpse of the work being done on the new customs area/international gate (it will be located downstairs on floor 1). You won’t be able to go down and see much of it, but you never know what you might see just looking through the glass or just peering downstairs. 

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2 hours ago, RiverYuppy said:

I'm going to be flying RIC this week. Any suggestions on what to look at? I'm hoping that Ironclad already has their coffee set up.

Ironclad was setup last month in Concourse A, so I imagine likewise in B.

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1 hour ago, eandslee said:

Even though April 2023 yielded the most passengers served of any April in history at RIC (and was the second highest passenger count of any month in history), there has been absolutely no media coverage.  That is very disappointing!  Maybe the news will catch up next week.  It's not likely to come from RBS either, unfortunately.  At any rate, I wanted to share with you my line graph showing the passenger count trend at RIC since the pandemic.  Enjoy!

image.thumb.png.4d7f9d210f6f1c3ea2d37306bf06c271.png

All "summer travel breaking records in 2023" news points in the direction that RVA will probably have even higher numbers next few months. Very exciting... I love our little airport. Great chart!

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25 minutes ago, ancientcarpenter said:

All "summer travel breaking records in 2023" news points in the direction that RVA will probably have even higher numbers next few months. Very exciting... I love our little airport. Great chart!

Very exciting indeed. I'll be glad when the day comes that we can finally say it's not a little airport anymore.

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17 minutes ago, blopp1234 said:

Great news. I have no doubt with 4 new breeze routes, plus sun country adding MSP and Spirit adding LAS, the numbers in May will be an all time high for RIC. 
 

Was taking a look at the RIC Master Plan again and it shows that the Concourse B expansion (which would add 9 new gates) should start being considered by 2025 and Concourse A (which would add 7 new gates) should be started by 2030. Hopefully passenger numbers continue to increase at this rate as RIC is outperforming the high end projections from the airport master plan.

AMEN, @blopp1234-- from your keyboard to God's eyes, my friend!

That would bring us to 44 gates -- which is a significant step up in terms of "level" of airports based on number of gates, yes?

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On 5/31/2023 at 3:44 PM, Icetera said:

Ironclad was setup last month in Concourse A, so I imagine likewise in B.

Ironclad also has a free coffee station in Concourse B, which I greatly appreciated since the main kiosk was closed when I was waiting to board my flight.

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11 hours ago, eandslee said:

Today marked the first day of the return of daily flights between RIC and MSP on Delta Airlines.  The flight utilizes a CRJ-900LR (seats about 88 passengers), which is not a mainline aircraft, but just glad this flight has restarted.  Oh, and here she comes:

 

IMG_3999.png

Perhaps as this route gets more (re)established, Delta will beef up the size of the aircraft. Mind you, Sun Country also has this route, yes?

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9 minutes ago, I miss RVA said:

Perhaps as this route gets more (re)established, Delta will beef up the size of the aircraft. Mind you, Sun Country also has this route, yes?

Yes, but only twice a week (Mondays and Fridays), but they are flying mainline aircraft (Boeing 737s). 

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On 5/30/2023 at 4:11 PM, eandslee said:

April 2023 passenger numbers for RIC have been released and they are very good.  RIC did not break the 400,000 passenger mark in April, but got close…and it was the second best month ever for the airport!!  April 2023 yielded 393,355 passengers.  May (this month) should break the 400K mark, setting a new record for the airport. We’ll see come next month, but RIC keeps trending upwards!  Hope this trend continues!  Here are the raw stats:

IMG_3982.jpeg

Something I meant to post last week but got busy and forgot:

Helped by April's incredible month (and a huge March), RIC's FY 2023 projection -- based on only the SLOWEST third of the travel year - is already checking in at 4.159 million. The four-month total of 1.385 million being 21.24% ahead of the same time period in 2022 is huge uptick in volume. And if we're already on the doorstep of a projected 4.2 M for 2023 - WITH THE BUSIEST TRAVEL SEASONS JUST GETTING STARTED - there's little question that RIC will shatter her all-time FY passenger volume mark this year.

No question - we're inching closer to 4.5 M - and from there, it's not THAT huge a leap to topping 5 million in the next couple of years. If we can keep this tremendous upward trajectory going full speed ahead, perhaps we get those Concourse A & B expansions - and the additional 16 gates - sooner rather than later.

Imagine what this airport could do with 44 gates instead of 28.

Edited by I miss RVA
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